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The US Senate issued a rare rebuke of Donald Trump on Thursday when a majority of lawmakers, including five Republicans, voted to advance legislation to block the president from taking more military action in Venezuela.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted 52-47 to advance the war powers resolution, which would stop the administration from carrying out further military strikes in Venezuela without authorisation from Congress.
The vote on Capitol Hill came five days after Trump ordered an audacious military operation to capture Venezuela’s strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro. The White House did not warn Congress of the strike.
While Republican lawmakers have largely supported the president’s tactics in the country in the days since Maduro’s capture, Thursday’s vote was the clearest signal that members of the president’s party are growing wary of his increasingly interventionist foreign policy and are eager to place limits on the White House’s use of military force.
The president swiftly condemned the Republicans who voted for the resolution, saying in a post on X that the party “should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with the Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America”.
“This Vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief,” he added.
Trump and top White House officials have in recent days refused to rule out more military action in Venezuela. They have raised the prospect of operations in other Latin American countries, including Colombia and Cuba, as well as using military force to annex Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Five Republican senators — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Todd Young of Indiana, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — joined with all Senate Democrats to support the resolution, which was introduced by Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine. The bill needs to clear additional legislative hurdles before its final passage.
Collins said she did not support “committing additional US forces or entering into any long-term military involvement in Venezuela or Greenland without specific congressional authorisation”.
“I believe invoking the war powers act at this moment is necessary, given the president’s comments about the possibility of ‘boots on the ground’ and a sustained engagement ‘running’ Venezuela, with which I do not agree,” she added.
Young said Thursday’s vote was “about potential future military operation, not completed successful operations”.
The Indiana senator said it was “unclear” whether Trump’s plans to “run” Venezuela would require a US military presence in the country. He added he was “not prepared to commit American troops to that mission”.
“President Trump campaigned against forever wars, and I strongly support him in that position,” Young added. “A drawn-out campaign in Venezuela involving the American military, even if unintended, would be the opposite of President Trump’s goal of ending foreign entanglements.”